Beaches and Boleias

This past Friday we came back from our 6 day site visits. I was sent to a beautiful part of Mozambique called Inhambane, a coastal province. Not only were the beaches amazing, but the landscape was stunning with palm trees and flowers blooming all over. The Indian Ocean has many colors to it, reminding me of the Caribbean. Never did I think that I would be visiting such a place while in the Peace Corps.

During my trip to Inhambane I visited 3 sites of current Peace Corps volunteers: Vilinkulos, Inhassaro, and Mapinhane. All of them were amazing, some volunteers were living with electricity and running water, while others were living with as little as 2 hours of electricity a day and carted their water from a well. I was inspired by the volunteers (many of which will be closing service when I am sworn in). Not only did they have excellent stories about their experience, but were relaxed and able to occupy themselves with what little they had around them. We spent much of the time talking, laughing, playing guitar and enjoying one another’s company, sometimes by kerosene lamp light.

Having come back from my trip, I am even more excited to finish training and start my service. The most important thing that I learned was that no matter where Laurie and I will be placed for our site, we will be able to make it work. Mozambique is a large country with so much undeveloped beauty and so much variety in culture – there are so many things to get involved in and be a part of no matter where we are placed.

This was just a quick note from me. Laurie has more details as follows:

I am feeling refreshed and relaxed after a fantastic site visit! PC sent all 51 of us to current volunteer sites across Mozambique for 5 days so that we could see what it is really like to be a PCV in this country. Chris and I were split up so that we could see different parts of the country which worked really well. It was a good exercise for me to see that I could figure some things out on my own, and, it’s great to be able to draw on a range of experiences to get an idea of what our life here will be like. All of us trainees knew we had been sheltered by living in Namaacha, only one town in the country and a town very used to seeing westerners. But now we’ve all seen the possibilities and are just buzzing with excitement to find out where our permanent sites will be. We have an interview with the site placement peeps on Monday to talk about what kinds of things we would or would not want but it’s become clear that every site has its advantages and disadvantages and no matter where you are, you can make it work! By far, the majority of PCVs love their sites here in Mozambique so that is a good sign. The site announcements are going to be made on Wednesday, so we will finally be able to share the info on the city/town/village we will be living in for the next two years!

My site visit took me up North to a small town called Monapo in Nampula Province. After a plane ride, a night in a seedy motel in the capital city of the province and a 2-hour, hot ride in a chapa (packed mini-bus), myself and my fellow trainee traveling buddy made it to Monapo. My first impression of the North is that it was incredibly beautiful (Namaacha is in the far south of the country by the way). It looks like Hawaii at times with its bright flowers, rolling mountains and palm trees in an arid landscape. Monapo itself however, is mostly vast space with lots of sand, not really anything very pretty to look at. I stayed with an awesome volunteer who is currently in her COS (close of service) stage since she is done with her 2 years and heading back to the States next month. It was so helpful to be with someone who has already been through this crazy ride and was able to provide tons of insight and advice. So the first day, we were given a tour of her town and we checked out her home which is a decent size and well put together, the market which has all the basic necessities, and her school. I got to see the classroom where she teaches 90-100 students, which is a pretty common size for secondary schools in Mozambique. Her site had some pluses and minuses but all in all, it seems pretty decent. It is highly unlikely Chris and I will end up there since they plan to send 2 females to fill this spot. One of the best parts of her location is that she is only about an hour from the Ilha de Mocambique (the island of Mozambique), so for 2 of the days I was on a tropical paradise! I have seen a lot of beaches in my day, but Ilha was seriously one of the most beautiful I have ever seen. White sands, turquoise water and Portuguese architecture made me feel like I was in a Greek Isle. We stayed in an amazing hostel, had fantastic seafood and relaxed by the beach. After the craziness of training every day, it was a much needed break! I am definitely lucky since some people’s site visits were more inland and more in the bush, so they did not get an opportunity for a beach getaway. But, let me tell you about how we got to the beach…I am now educated on the world of Boleias (grabbing a ride by hitchhiking!). This is something in the States that we all know is totally not kosher so of course, the idea of hitchhiking to the beach initially scared the crap out of me! But my fearless host, the well-traveled and experienced volunteer, assured us that this is a very common mode of transportation in Mozambique. As long as the car looks clean and safe, the driver is not drunk and your gut tells you this person is not a psycho, go ahead and hop in! Seems a little nutty, right? Well, this was one of those moments where I decided to just go with the flow and hop in the back of the pickup truck of some stranger. With the wind flowing through my hair, looking at the African landscape and knowing I was on my way to a beautiful beach, I felt a moment of pure bliss. My ever too cautious self would have NEVER done anything like this in the States and I think that if it had been just Chris and I, I may have made a stink and told him that I did not want to do it. It felt so great to get out of my comfort zone, one of those clichéd reasons for wanting to do Peace Corps. Now, that is not to say there weren’t a few moments of terror :). Our first boleia to the beach was pretty low key, but the truck on the way back was going much faster than necessary and I contemplated the best position to be in if I were to suddenly get thrown! Our next boleia was a fancy, air-conditioned private truck owned by a South African businessman who spoke English and had once lived in my hometown, Columbus, Ohio so that was a boleia win! But, then our last ride to the airport was with a Mozambican dude who seemed harmless but weird, drove a little too slow and was saying things in Portuguese we couldn’t quite understand! I don’t think this is a mode of transportation I will take too often, but I’m glad to say I’ve experienced it and it’s good to know if it’s an option because let me remind you that the main form of transportation here, a chapa, isn’t exactly up to American safety standards either. :)

In other exciting news, we both passed our mid-training language proficiency test! After all that worry and telling myself I couldn’t do it, I did it! Those who did not pass have to continue to attend language classes every day while the rest of us will be in technical training from here on out to practice teaching. We will all be participating in “model school”, which means we prepare and teach individually about 3-4 lessons to a group of Mozambican kids in a classroom environment. Chris and I both know that we need more language tutoring despite passing the test, so we have voluntarily signed up for some extra classes in these last few weeks of training, and, we will definitely get a tutor once we get to site as well…Ok, off to hike to the waterfalls. Until site announcements!!!...